The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Social Psychology by David G. Myers 9 th Edition The Self in a Social World

Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. The Self in a Social World At the center of our worlds, more pivotal for us than anything else, is ourselves. Do you agree or disagree?

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Spotlights and Illusions Interplay between sense of self and the social world –Spotlight effect: the belief that others are paying more attention to one’s appearance and behavior than they really are In an experiment by Gilovich, Medvec, and Savitsky (2000): teenagers were asked to wear embarrassing Barry Manilow t-shirts. When asked how many people in their class they thought would notice they said half. However only 25% noticed. Very common in adolescence –Illusion of transparency: the illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can easily be read by others –In a way, these two ideas display how we may think we are more important than we really are

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Spotlights and Illusions –Social surroundings: affect our surroundings We notice how we differ and how others react to our differences –Self-interest: colors our social judgment We usually attribute more responsibility to others than ourselves when things go wrong. We attribute more responsibility to ourselves when things are going right –Self-concern: motivates our social behavior We adjust our behavior accordingly In hopes of making a positive impression we may agonize about appearance –Social relationships: help define our self We may be one person with mom, another with friends, another with teacher, etc

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Our Sense of Self Ourselves  Others The way we think about ourselves influences how we act towards others and others help shape our sense of self

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Our Sense of Self Our sense of self is made up of the following components: –Self-concept: Who Am I? –Self-schemas: your self concept, how you define yourself Whether you perceive yourself as athletic, intelligent, etc –Self-reference effect: the tendency to process efficiently and remember well information related to oneself We will remember a character that is like us more than one that is not –Possible selves: images of what we dream and dread becoming in the future

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Self-Concept: Who Am I? Development of the social self –The roles we play –Social identity –Success and failure –Social comparisons –Other people’s judgments (labeling, etc) From examining the concepts above, it seems that our social self is largely influenced by others. Do you agree or disagree? What are your thoughts on labeling?

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Who Am I? The Self

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Self-Concept: Who Am I? Self and Culture –Individualism: giving priority to one’s goals over the group’s goals. Personal identification instead of group identification –Collectivism: giving priority to the goal’s of one’s group and defining one’s identity accordingly –Interdependent self: constructing one’s identity in relation to others Goal is not to define oneself but to harmonize –Cultural psychology

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Self-Concept: Who Am I?

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Self-Concept: Who Am I?

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. What Affects Self-Concept?

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Who are you? After looking over these slides, who are you? (Independent or interdependent)

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Self-Concept: Who Am I? Self-knowledge –Explaining our behavior Why did you go to college? Sometimes we cannot explain our behavior Is there such a thing as free will? –Predicting our behavior: we err at predicting our own behavior Example: When people in a relationship were asked to predict the longevity of the relationship they were often inaccurate. Family and friends tended to be more accurate. People how know you can predict your behavior better than you can WHY? –Predicting our feelings: when women were asked how they would feel if they were asked sexually harassing questions in an interview they said angry. However, when these questions were actually asked they reported experiencing fear. –The wisdom and illusions of self-analysis: our intuitions are often wrong

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Self-Esteem Self-esteem: Overall self-evaluation of self- worth –How do you think we develop our self esteem? –There are different types of self esteem: academic, physical, athletic, etc You may be high in one area and low in another

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Self Esteem –Self-esteem motivation: trying to maintain self esteem Example: if you were always compared to your sibling, the sibling viewed as less capable will act out in ways to preserve their self esteem –The “dark side” of self-esteem Low self esteem is predictive of problems (depression, drug abuse, delinquency, etc) Finding their self esteem threatened, some people may react by putting others down

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Self-Esteem

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Elements of the Self

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Perceived Self-Control Self-efficacy: a feeling that one is competent and effective –Children and adults with higher self efficacy are more persistent, less anxious, and less depressed. They also lead happier and healthier lives Locus of control: the extent to which people perceive outcomes as internally controllable by their efforts and actions or as externally controlled by chance or outside forces.

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Perceived Self Control Locus of Control…which one do you believe 1.a) In the long run, people get the respect they deserve in this world b) Unfortunately, people’s worth passes unrecognized no matter how hard they try 2.a) What happens to me is my own doing b) Sometimes I feel that I don’t have enough control over the direction my life is taking 3.a) The average person can have an influence in government decisions b) The world is run by a few people in power and there’s nothing the little guy can do about it

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Perceived Self Control If you chose mostly A’s then you believe in internal locus of control If you chose mostly B’s then you believe in external locus of control Internal locus of control is related to doing better in school, the ability to successfully stop smoking, accomplishing long term goals, etc

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Perceived Self Control –Learned helplessness versus self-determination Learned helplessness: the hopelessness and resignation learned when a human or an animal perceives no control over repeated bad events (depressed people) –The costs of excess choice Individualistic cultures can have an excess of freedom causing decreased life satisfaction and increased depression. –Idea of having too many choices –Choice  regret

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Locus of Control

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Learned Helplessness

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Self-Serving Bias Explaining positive and negative events –Can we all be better than average? –Most people see themselves as better than the average person –You attribute success to yourself and defeat to outside factors Unrealistic optimism: most of us have an unrealistic optimism about the future –Marriage license applicants realize that half of marriages end in divorce but estimate their chances of divorce as zero. –Defensive pessimism: the adaptive value of anticipating problems

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Self Serving Bias False consensus and uniqueness –False consensus: we overestimate the degree to which others agree with our opinions –People who sneak a shower during a shower ban believe lots of others are doing the same –False uniqueness effect: the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviors Explaining self-serving bias: people perceive themselves in self enhancing ways. Why? Reflections on self-esteem and self-serving bias

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Self-Serving Bias Reflections on self-efficacy and self-serving bias –The self-serving bias as adaptive Believing one has talents and positive qualities makes us feel good. Can keep us from depression –The self-serving bias as maladaptive People who blame others for their social difficulties are unhappy –The group-serving bias: inflating judgments of your own group You perceive your sorority as less snobbish

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. How Self-Serving Bias Works

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. More on Self-Concept

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Self-Presentation False modesty Self-handicapping: sometimes people sabotage their chances of success by creating impediments –I am not a failure, I would have done well had it not been for this problem Impression management –Self-presentation –Self-monitoring

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. More on Self-Presentation

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Cultural Influences

The Self in a Social World Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Cultural Influences